A Shift In The Balance
by darkphoneix
Summary: *unproofed*Ranma arrives in the world in which the Saga of Recluce takes place. How will a world where magic is raw chaos react to someone like Ranma?
1. Default Chapter

A Shift In The Balance- Prologue  
  
****  
  
Cerryl felt the massive upwelling of chaos and order mere moments after it began. He was up and halfway down the tower stairs, chaos and order building around him, before anyone, including Leyladin knew what had occured. He didn't even know what had occured, but any concentration of chaos and order on such an enormous scale couldn't bode well for Fairhaven, the White City. By the time he reached the lower floors, Cerryl was breathing heavily and had a group of over a dozen guards and mages following after him.  
  
"Stay back`" Cerryl shouted. Their a dozen feet in the air above the center of the Wizards' square, a mass of such twisted order and chaos hovered, that Cerryl feared for the entire city. Only a few mages could see it as he did, but the others knew to do as the High Wizard said.  
  
The Wizards' square never really had many non-mages in it, and they all disappeared as soon as any trouble with white wizards began to look iminent.  
  
Cerryl stood by helplessly, unable to comprehend what was happening, all thoughts of banishing the disturbance wiped away by its very power. Others were beginning to sense the chaos, if not the order, and soon nearly two score mages, almost all of those in Fairhaven, had arrived at the square. Chaos smouldered around every last one of those men and women, except in the case of his consort, who marshalled so much order that she almost seemed to glow with a luminescent blackness.  
  
Someone, probably the overmage Kinowin, had the foresight to call in several score lancers, all of whom stood by with white bronze sabers bared. Long minutes passed, and whispers began to flow through the square. Many knew of the prophecy that Fairhaven would be destroyed by a second sun, could this be it?  
  
Cerryl sought out Kinowin, the man who's once proud frame was now stooped with the onset of rapid aging that most chaos wielders eventually faced. "Have the lancers begin evacuating the city," Cerryl told the man. "Do it quietly and by sections. We don't want a riot and I'd prefer not to have to loose chaos fire on our own citizens." Kinowin nodded solemnly then shuffled away. Cerryl still couldn't believe how fast is friend's decline had been.  
  
To Leyladin, he said,"You, too. Gather your sisters and their families and get as far out of the valley as you can. If this is the time of the prophecy, I won't have you be part of it." Myral, the mage responsible for almost all that Cerryl was, a gray mage, the lover of a Black Order mage, even High Wizard, had foretold that prophecy, and as little respect as Myral had commanded, everyone knew of his honesty.  
  
The woman didn't even have time to respond, as the disturbance suddenly became a visible distortion in the air, then with a flash of blinding white light, disappeared from sight and order-chaos senses. As the aftereffects of the blast of light faded, Cerryl saw the figure of a young man staggering in the center of the square. He couldn't have been any older than Cerryl himself had been when he had joined the Guild as a student mage. Before the High Wizard could say otherwise, chaos fire flashed towards the dazed boy.  
  
The young man shook his head and looked around. Cerryl could sense the confusion and anger even over the white-red globules of chaos fire that were less than a second away from striking their target. Cerryl tried to wrap order around the boy while simultaneously using it to deflect the fire bolts, but the effort was small and wasted, too much of his power tied up in a defense of himself and Leyladin. Beside him, Leyladin attempted to do the same, but she too was too far away and had too much of her order gathered to herself.  
  
The least Cerryl and the woman could do, though, was to build a wall of order around the boy to stop any further chaos assaults. It wasn't much, but if he survived the first round, he'd be safe for at least a few more minutes.  
  
****  
  
Ranma's head throbbed and his ears rang. His equilibrium was screwed up and he felt like he'd been thrown in a blender. The images before his eyes wavered and pinpoints of light flashed through them. Then he felt an approaching heat, felt it growing in instensity into something that could harm him. Acting on pure instinct and his danger sense, Ranma threw himself flat, the smooth stones beneath him feeling cool compared to the white firestorm above.  
  
The heat became a searing balze and he felt the skin on his back blister and smelled the scent of his own hair burning. Then it passed, all but the lingering pain that made him want to cry out in anguish. Adrenalin surged through his system and it allowed Ranma to focus past the pain, to ignore his disorientation. He called on his battle aura, pulled the chi energy from deep within himself until there was so much life energy floating around him that he felt his wounded back already beginning to heal. The chi burned through him almost as if it, too, were a fire. In its wake, though, came power.  
  
The wavering images in his eyes snapped into tight, almost unnatural sharpness and his other senses followed suit. Ranma knew he was surrounded without having to survey the area. Fire, or an energy very much like fire, crackled around small groups of men and a few women. It reminded Ranma of Saffron and the memory jarred him into forcing his emotions back, to fall into the soul of ice. The battle aura became thicker, growing outward but losing its deep blue intensity in favor of a paler shade that chilled the surrounding air and began to form a wispy puddle of mist around Ranma's feet.  
  
Surrounded by powerful foes and outrageously outnumbered, Ranma waited, taking up a defensive crouch that would allow him to sping into action at a moment's notice. The cold generated by the soul of ice further served to sooth the lingering pain in his back and Ranma began to feel confident of himself and his chances at getting out of this situation alive. Chi, focussed and strenghtened by towering confidence, began to gather in each of Ranma's hands. He could use that energy to attack at a distance or channel it into his physical attacks to do more damage if necessary.  
  
A man, in his early thirties at the most, with short brown hair and unremarkable features came into view. He was flanked by four sword wielding soldiers, but Ranma could tell at a glance than none of them posed a threat. The man who walked between them was another matter entirely. White fire swirled around him, but there was also a kind of crisp blackness within that fire, and instead of lessening the power of the aura, it seemed to enhance it, make it somehow intangibly stronger.  
  
When they were a dozen paces from Ranma, the man called a halt to his escort and shouted to Ranma, "If you come with me, I can assure your safety, but not if you take any hostile actions towards my men or my fellow mages."  
  
It was Japanese, barely. The accent was even worse than Shampoo's, but at least he had the proper forms and vocabulary as far as Ranma could tell. "And you crazy people just go around throwing fireballs at people for no reason?" Ranma snapped, still conscious of his injured back and unknown appearance...wherever he was. "Who are you and where am I?" Ranma didn't release the grasp he held on his chi or the energy he'd called to his hands, but he dropped the fighting stance and took up one that most other people would look upon as casual.  
  
"I'm, Cerryl, the High Wizard of Fairhaven, and as you may have discerned, this is Fairhaven. I apologize for the actions of my mages, they were startled and it is out nature to lash out against that which suprises us. I can offer you medical treatment and a place to rest. My consort is a most accomplished healer." Cerryl stepped back and he and his guards doubled the distance between them and Ranma.  
  
Ranma wasn't the best judge of character, but sometimes trust was all a person had. He was in a strange city, in a strange land, with dozens of people capable of throwing fireballs like Saffron. He 'might' have been able to fight his way of the city, but how far could he go before they chased him down? He'd progressed in the art since his fight with the phoenix, and was confident that his aura combined with the soul of ice would be enough to ward off a significant number of the white fireballs, but that wasn't a guaranteed defense given that he didn't know what else the wizards could do. Ugh, if only they didn't use magic.  
  
Ranma pulled his aura back in, drawing the pooled energy back only until it would no longer be visible, but could be unleashed at a moment's notice. With a nod to Cerryl, he began walking towards the man.  
  
****  
  
Ranma was anxious. Nearly everyone eyed him with suspiscion or outright hostility. Cerryl and his consort, as well as a few others, however, seemed made of sterner stuff and reserved judgement until they better understood the new arrival.   
  
He groaned as he felt the somehow chill warmth seeping into his back. Whatever Leyladin was doing, Ranma appreciated it greatly. His own efforts to heal the damage had been rushed and incomplete, but with this treatment he'd be fully functional within a day.  
  
"You're a very strange young man, Ranma," Leyladin, Cerry's consort said as she spread a rather pungent ointment onto his back. Consort meant wife, Ranma concluded from the signs he'd seen in the few minutes the two people had been together before he'd been herded off with the healer. Cerryl had gathered his mages and gone off for a council meeting or something.  
  
Strange didn't even begin to describe what Ranma was. Strange definitely described how Ranma had gotten wherever this place was. He'd been walking to school, like any other day, and then he'd appeared in midair on some other continent, or world, he couldn't even tell which.  
  
Ranma remained silent, trying to think of what may have caused him to appear here. Leyladin continued,"You have absolutely no order within your body, yet order seems to heal you much faster than should be possible. The same is true for chaos. There is none within you that I can detect and I am most sensitive to such. Your brush with chaos fire should have caused much greater injuries than these." Ranma didn't say anything about his own efforts to fix himself up. "Of course that glow you manifested in the square is another unheard of phenomena. I believe we all felt the power it embodied, but no one, myself included, has ever seen anything like it."  
  
Ranma shrugged as best he could from his position of the cot and finally said,"I don't know what chaos or order are, at least not the way your talking about them, but all that other stuff is just because I'm good, nothing unusual about that at all."  
  
Leyladin gave Ranma puzzled glance but shook her head and continued to apply the ointment and her order to Ranma's back.  
  
****  
  
The High Wizard and the two overmages stood on the raised, gold-shot marble dais, all the mages currently in Fairhaven save those serving on gate duty arrayed before them. The mages whispered among themselves, some shouting down opponents or raising their order shields in a silent threat. Cerryl eyed the gathering and turned to Kinowin with one eyebrow raised sardonically. Kinowin grinned, a gesture that made the wrinkles on his face even more prominent. In his still deep voice, the once powerful overmage cried,"Quiet, the High Wizard speaks."  
  
The conversations died down, if unwillingly, and after a few inconsistent mutters from unidentifiable sources, silence held sway. "This meeting has been called simply to announce my decision, a decision supported fully by both overmages. The stranger is not to be harmed, under any circumstances. If he attacks a anyone, mages included, he will be brought to me for questioning and confirmation of the assault. If I find that the attack was falsified, the dishonet individual will be executed. At all times within the city he will have an escort of two patrol lancers and an aprentice mage. Until otherwise decided by myself, he has free access to the city. That is all, you may go."  
  
THAT didn't make very many of the mages happy, and Cerryl felt as much as saw many of them gathering chaos and raising shields. They weren't stupid enough to attack him, not publicly anyway. Besides, he had a reputation of killing people; mages, rulers, pretty much anyone who threatened him. It was vastly overblown, and the product of self defense more than anything, but it had its uses.  
  
Kinowin and Redark, the other overmage, followed closely behind Cerryl as he departed the council hall. When they reached the outer hall and were out of anyones sensory range, no matter how talented they may be, Redark spoke,"This decision does not sit well with the Guild, and most of those present today were the younger, more accepting of our Order. News will reach the mages spread out accross Candar and many will seek to replace you as High Wizard, no matter how effective you have been in the office."  
  
Cerryl smiled indulgently towards the well-meaning, but less than bright overmage. "They are scared. Everyone knows the prophecies of Myral, and whatever chaos-order disturbance brought Ranma to this world, reminds many of them of THE prophecy." Cerryl had no doubt that Ranma wasn't from anywhere on their world. The display of power earlier in the day had helped him reach that conclusion, but the lack of all chaos and order within the boy was the major factor. Cerryl suspected that as he stayed in Candar, though, Ranma would begin to take on his own internal order-chaos balance. Until then, someone had to protect him.  
  
"Overmage Redark makes a valid point, ser. No one has been happy about the recent shift in Guild practices that you have established, and this event will seem to many as a perfect opportunity to sieze your office. They may fear you, but you've kept the true extent of your powers hidden so well that few understand what you are capable of." Kinowin would have made a better High Wizard than Cerryl, at least that's what Cerryl felt. Unfortunately, the man had few years remaining and handling of much chaos now could hasten an already rapidly approaching end.  
  
"We will see, we will definitely see." Cerryl had no intentions of endangering himself or Leyladin, and the first sign of any attempted usurption would be met with swift and fatal retaliation. Now that he looked at it from the proper angle, Ranma's arrival was the perfect excuse to get rid of the last few dissident factions within the Guild.  
  
****  
  
Author's Notes- I couldn't help myself. I had some writer's block but still wanted to write, so I've made another fic. It's a crossover with the Recluce Saga, coming within a few years of the two books 'The White Order' and 'Colors of Chaos'. Not much has happened yet, but the pace will pick up in the next few chapters. You don't need to have read the Recluce books, though it would help you understance some stuff I'll mention. I'm gonna try to write this where just reading it will eventually explain enough about order and chaos and the workings of the Guild that the fic itself will be all the explanation needed. C&C welcome at dark_phoneix@hotmail.com 


	2. 

A Shift In The Balance- Chapter 1  
  
Ranma stretched langorously, his eyes and senses playing across his room as he awoke. The first thing Ranma did after climbing out of bed was to check the invisible mesh of chi and order that he maintained around himself constantly so as to keep chaos from being drawn to him. He still wasn't as good at balancing the forces of order and chaos as Cerryl was, and the few times that his aura shield had failed while he slept had left him with headaches that lingered for days and uncontrollable powers that were as likely to turn him invisible as they were to incinerate someone.  
  
Not much had changed since his arrival in Candar three years earlier. He still didn't know how or why he'd ended up on another planet and almost every white mage he knew of wished him dead. He'd heard outrageous rumors that he was some kind of angel or demon, but he'd put those down with a heavy and glowing hand. He didn't even have wings, so how could he be one of them? At least now Ranma had a place that he could call his own and a duty that he felt was worthwhile. The Iron Guard, not really enough men yet to be anything more than a couple companies, were his responsibility and it fell to him to see that they were properly trained.  
  
Cerryl's concept, the Guard was an answer the the order oages of Recluce and their black iron weapons and the order they held. A white mage, a typical one anyway, didn't live long after being nicked or scratched by an ordinary iron weapon, an ordered blade tended to make the mages explode into pillars of fire. The same was true for the lancers that Fairhaven employeed. Through long association with the mages of Fairhaven, the lancers came to hold a small amount more chaos within themselves than they should, and black iron turned them into explosives anti-personnel mines.  
  
His men, few as they were, had no direct contact with any mages besides himself and the few Cerryl knew who were more gray than white. They were paid in gold that wasn't even minted in Fairhaven and their weapons and equipment were quality steel and standard field gear, unlike the lancers who used chaos reinforced white bronze in their sabers and lances. Ranma would train them, and free of chaos, they would train others, until eventually Fairhaven had a fighting force that couldn't be brought to its knees by a handful of order smiths and their black iron creations.  
  
As he pulled on his heavy, thick-soled black boots, Ranma's eyes flickered to the sheathed longsword that hung on a peg in the wall next to the door. He couldn't really say why he'd had it made, but it somehow felt right. At its core was a chaos forged and chaos reinforced white bronze center and around that a casing of ordered iron. Ranma didn't know anything about the forging of weapons, but he'd supervised the entire porcess, reinforcing the bronze and ordering the iron himself. At the time he didn't know it, but through experimentation Ranma had found that the blade's unusual properties totally negated order and chaos shielding as well as allowed him to interrupt or deflect chaos attacks without expending his energy.  
  
He strapped the shoulder harness on over his gray tunic and headed out for another day of training the newest recruits. Ranma adjusted the sword strap again, wishing he didn't need the weapon, but realizing that any advantage on this hostile world had to be milked for all it was worth. Someone had to teach the men how to use a sword properly, too. It might as well be Ranma Saotome, he thought with a smirk.  
  
It was raining lightly, but Ranma stepped out into the spring shower and headed for the barracks. The curse was still around, though activating it took almost full submergence for at least a few seconds. Even then, the change took almost a minute to complete, a very uncomfortable minute during which Ranma could feel his internal organ and overall form slowly shifting into his cursed body. Changing back to a guy required very little lukewarm water and the change somehow happened even faster than he was accustommed to on Earth. It'd leave him disoriented and dizzy for a few moments after the change.   
  
Ranma didn't know if it had to do with the chaos and order of Candar or if the disturbance that had brought him to Candar had somehow altered the curse. Either way, Ranma was happy with it.  
  
****  
  
The guard on duty outside Cerryl's quarters nodded to Ranma as he topped the stairs. [Mornin', Gostar, what's been going on?[ Ranma asked the older man pleasantly. Ranma would have asked the solid lancer if he'd join his Iron Guard, but Gostar had been around too much chaos in his life to meet the requirements of the Guard.  
  
[Not that it's any of my business, ser, but there's been more mages in and out than I'm used to seeing in a week.[ Ranma nodded in thanks and the man spoke once again. [How's the boy doing, if I might ask, ser?[  
  
The 'boy' was Gostar's oldest son, Gostar Jr. Ranma was still dubious about the boy's skills as an armsmen, but he was young and showing signs of being an order mage or healer. If the talent came forth, Ranma would have to turn young Gostar over to Leyladin for training or smuggled him to Recluce. White mages didn't really like order mages, even the healers they so often needed, and Cerryl couldn't protect someone indefinitely, as Ranma knew. [He shows a great deal of potential,[ was Ranma's reply, though it was deliberately misleading.  
  
The guard grinned proudly and knocked on the plain white oak door leading to the High Wizard's quarters. [Mage Ranma here to see the High Wizard, ser,[ he announced loudly.  
  
[Send him in,[ Cerryl called.  
  
****  
  
As always, Cerryl was accompanied by Leyladin, the beautiful healer and order mage. Another mage sat around the small table. Ranma had seen her on a few occassions at Council meetings or in the meal hall, but he hadn't spoken to her. Though she didn't show any signs of it, most mages in Fairhaven couldn't tolerate Ranma for some reason.   
  
[Have a seat, Ranma, we've been waiting for you,[ Cerryl said, gesturing to the only empty chair. After he sat down, Cerryl said, [Ranma, this is Lyassa, and old friend of mine. Lyassa, I'm sure you know of Ranma.[  
  
Lyassa looked more Japanese than anyone Ranma had met so far in Candar. Her skin color was the same, her hair was a thick blue-black much like Akane's, and even her eyes were the same shape, but she wasn't Japanese, no one but Ranma could claim that title. The mage smiled at him, not a false smile or a condescending one, just a sincere and friendly smile. Ranma returned it tentatively.  
  
[Now that that's over with, let's get down to business.[ The small mirror resting in the center of the table suddenly filled with silver mists that faded away to reveal an aerial view of an unfamiliar city to Ranma. The architecture was unlike any he'd seen in Candar, and the people below looked much darker of skin than anyone Ranma had seen since leaving Earth.  
  
The view rapidly blurred, moving closer to the ground and turning to better see a ship yard that bustled with activity. Cerryl released the image, his forehead already beaded with sweat. After rubbing his temples to ease the headache Ranma knew screeing could cause, Cerryl elaborated,[Using the glass over such a long distance, especially with all that water between here and Hamor, is rather difficult.[ He took a sip from a mug of water before continuing. [You wouldn't recognize the signs of it, Ranma, but those ships being built are warships, a great many warships in fact.[  
  
[Hamor doesn't have any land enemies,[ Ranma began, recalling his teachings,[so why would constuction of ships bother everyone so much? Hamor is a big place and to patrol that much open water you would need quite a few ships.[  
  
[That's true,[ Lyassa answered,[but not this many.[  
  
[Exactly. We never have been able to say for certain, since screeing a ship is impossible once it leaves port, but from reports brough to us from traders, Kinowin and I estimate that the Emperor is currently maintaining somewhere between ten to fifteen score war galleys and schooners.[ Ranma's mouth formed into an O of suprise and Cerryl smirked as his point finally made itself to Ranma. [There are at least that many under construction in various ports in Hamor.[ Ranma's mouth kept on making the O.  
  
Fairhaven maintained less than two score vessels and that was enough to dominate Candar, with the exception of the ironclad ship an order smith from Recluce had built which was not quite invincible but not too far fromit. Less than forty ships costed thousands of golds every year to outfit and crew. Finally he shook himself and said,[Invasion fleet?[  
  
[Most likely, though we don't know if their intended target is Candar or the two island continents, Brysta and Nordla. Recluce is also a possibility, but their weather mages would decimate the fleet before it ever reached their isle. The Emperor of Hamor knows this, from experience. I doubt he'll risk it again, no matter the number of ships at his command.[  
  
[I have a bad feeling about this, and that feeling involves me, somehow,[ Ranma muttered, not attempting to keep it inaudible.  
  
Leyladin smiled at him, radiant as ever and said,[Be nice.[  
  
Even though she was only six or seven years his senior, Ranma meekly said,[Yes, ma'am.[ She didn't have Kasumi's mindless kind of cheer, but she acted much the same when she wanted to manipulate or shame someone.  
  
[That's not fair, Leyladin,[ Lyassa responded, grinning at Ranma's submission.  
  
[Whatever works,[ the healer shrugged.  
  
[Anyway,[ Cerryl began exasperatedly,[the Guild needs to know what Hamor is planning. We can't be caught unprepared if they do decide to invade Candar. This is our home and our responsibility. Though you're not a mage of the Guild, Ranma, you are paid from the Guild's funds and provide us with a valuable service, no matter how much my colleagues wish otherwise.[  
  
Ranma took the hint. [You want me to go spy on them? I'll do it, but wouldn't a mage able to use the glass be more effective at that kind of thing?[ He was getting bored with the training the Guard, and wouldn't mind a change of pace, but Hamor wasn't what he'd expected. He knew next to nothing about the place except that it was big, united, and run by an Emperor who's slightest whim, no matter how outrageous, became law.  
  
[That's why Lyassa will be going with you. Besides having another chaos wielder along in case you need support, she can, as you said, scree, and knows the history and customs of Hamor as well as any mage in Fairhaven.[ Cerryl paused before adding. [The Hamorians don't care chaos mages, Ranma, and they don't hold women in very high regard, either. Iron has no unusual effect on you and the authorities would never think to check a woman to for the ability to handle chaos.[  
  
[Arrangements have been made for you two to travel as husband and wife to the port of Tyrhaiven. From their you'll buy passage on a long haul transport to Hamor. Cerryl, of course, is going to give you lots and lots of gold to use as you see fit,[ explained Leyladin with a twinkle in her eye.  
  
[Uh, can't we pretend to be brother and sister?[ Ranma asked nervously, visions of being chaos roasted by Lyassa floating through his mind. He couldn't help that he had horrible luck with women, and mallets were bad enough, but getting cooked probably hurt a good deal more than getting hit with a hammer.  
  
[Hey, what's that supposed to mean? Am I not good enough for you?[ Lyassa snapped.  
  
[Oh no, it's starting all over again,[ Ranma moaned as he hung his head.  
  
****  
  
[I didn't mean anything by it, okay?[ Ranma pleaded as he sat across the table from Lyassa. They were in the Golden Ram, a better than average inn that Ranma and many other mages frequented.  
  
Lyassa shook her head and asked,[What did you mean then?[  
  
Ranma hesitated. He had never told anyone, not even Cerryl, about his life on Earth, not past his training in the martial arts, anyway. No one knew about the curse, the fiances, or the numerous rivals and enemies of his past. He settled on a partial truth. Anything less and Lyassa's ability to truth-read would alert her to his dishonesty. [Where I came from, I had a lot of troubles with women. It's not something I like to talk about. I wanted to be friends and they all wanted more. This whole plan of Cerryl's to pretend we're married just reminded me of things best left forgotten.[  
  
[So you're a womanizer?[ Lyassa had seemed so nice at first, too. She still wasn't really being malicious in her anger, but Ranma could see a pattern emerging.  
  
Ranma glared at the female mage and said,[It's nothing like that. I've never even been with a woman actually. I couldn't be a womanizer.[ Ranma realized he'd said too much and a slight flush suffused his cheeks. He tried to cover it up by taking a heavy swallow from the tankard of ale that sat before him on the table. In Candar it was better to a womanizer than a virgin, Ranma knew. Lyassa probably thought he was still a child.  
  
Lyassa was at a loss for words. She'd heard of the practice, of course, but she'd never have thought of Ranma as a man who found comfort with other men. He just didn't seem like what she'd pictured in her mind such a man to be. [Oh, well, I guess that's different than what I was thinking.[ She paused, unsure of what to say next. The silence drug out until after they had both eaten the overpriced stew and were about to leave to go back to the Halls of the Mages and get their travel packs and the gold they would need in Hamor.  
  
Finally, her curiousity got the better of her and Lyassa asked,[If it isn't too personal, could you tell me why you bed men instead of women?[  
  
Ranma froze in his tracks, staring at the mage beside him in open shock. [Are you insane?[ he asked. [What makes you think I like men that way?[ was the nest whispered question.  
  
[You admitted to it back in the Ram,[ Lyassa answered. She wished that she had just kept her mouth shut.  
  
[How could you think that from me telling you that I was a virgin?[ he snapped.  
  
[...Oh...that's what you meant...Aren't you a little old to still...[ Lyassa closed her mouth before she could swallow any more of her foot.  
  
Blushing furiously, Ranma said,[I'll meet you in the main courtyard of the Halls in an hour.[ Then he jumped to the top of the three story tavern and was gone from sight. Ranma usually avoided such displays where normal people could see him, but Lyassa had flustered him badly and he wasn't used to dealing with women now anymore than he had been back in Nerima.  
  
Lyassa didn't move from where she stood in the street for over five minutes as she stared at the place Ranma had leaped from. It just wasn't possible. No one could jump like that, not even if they had all the chaos and order of the world at their beck and call.  
  
****  
  
[It's going to be a little obvious that we're not Hamorian, you know?[ Ranma asked Cerryl. [I can't pretend to be a merchant or official either, because I haven't the faintest idea how to act like one.[  
  
[The cover story has already been set in motion. You will be the eldest son of Layel, a factor based in of Spidlar who has fallen into disfavor with your sire for embezzling a large number of golds from his counting rooms. You and Lyassa are on the run and since no one would expect it, you're laying low in Hamor until enough time passes that you can go back and not be immediately recognized by agents or informants of Layel.[ Cerryl took another sip of water from his mug and turned to Leyladin.  
  
[Father has agreed to go along with the charade. He's even planting rumors among the long haul traders who port in Spidlar confirming the lie. According to his last missive, he's enjoying himself immensely.[  
  
They discussed a few more details of the mission, a mission Ranma still didn't feel confident of actually accomplishing. With dinner fast approaching, Ranma finally asked,[Not that I have anything against her, and I know she's your friend and all, but couldn't you have found someone besides Lyassa to go along with me?[  
  
Cerryl frowned. [I thought you two got along well. What's the problem?[  
  
[She just reminds me of someone I knew a long time ago. Don't worry about it. She's seems nice enough, I guess, and we didn't get that great a start.[ Ranma sighed, relenting before his question could really even be answered.   
  
The High Wizard shrugged, sharing a questioning glance with Leyladin.  
  
****  
  
Lyassa shuddered and eased herself over in the carriage as Ranma threw his bags into the seat. His eyes tracked her gaze and he noticed that she was staring distastefully at the sword belted around a bag. Ranma grinned and shifted the sword so that it faced him. Just being in close proximity to ordered iron often proved painful for some mages, but the unusual construction of his sword did strange things to a mages senses if they weren't careful to let them flow around the bound order and chaos.  
  
[Do you have to bring that thing along? I understand that any white bronze weapon would be conspicuous, but I'm sure there are plenty of ordinary iron blades to be found in Fairhaven.[ The female mage glanced at the space where the weapon had once rested and turned away with one last shiver.  
  
[No, I don't have to, but I am. I don't like it much myself, for entirely different reasons than you, I'm sure, but Hamor is dangerous, almost as dangerous as Candar. I've had enough people try to kill me to know that any advantage, no matter how small, can save my life.[ To further remove the sword from Lyassa's perceptions, Ranma re-ordered the light around it, obscurring it from vision and muffling its emissions. [Happy?[  
  
[It'll do, I suppose,[ she replied glumly.  
  
The driver finally climbed into his seat and the carriage jerked forward before assuming a more steady motion.  
  
Trying to ease the uncomfortable silence that had sprang up between the 'married' couple, Ranma asked,[How long have you been a mage?[ While he wasn't a mage by Guild standards, those being that he manipulated chaos exclusively with the exception of using order to shield, Ranma was quite capable of using the both the white and black forces. He'd been learning the process of raising and controlling order and chaos almost since the day he'd arrived in Fairhaven three years ago, and he still found himself learning new control techniques or improving old ones. If she wasn't hiding her power, Lyassa was a moderately powerful chaos wielder, but she lacked the solid core of white energy that most mages possessed. Cerryl's teachings?  
  
Lyassa shrugged,[Eight years come fall. Cerryl, Faltar, and I were all inducted into the Guild at the same time.[  
  
[Oh yeah, I remember him mentioning that a while back when he was telling me about the black smith who built the steam ship. Uh, sorry, he was you're friend, right?[ Ranma planned on visiting Dorrin on Recluce one day, even if he had to do it with an army at his back. The smith was by all accounts an order focus, and while Ranma could possibly raise enough chaos to create another disturbance like the one which had brought him to Candar, he would still need the order to balance the forces.  
  
[What about you? I know Cerryl taught you more than anyone suspects. How long have you been a mage, Ranma?[ Lyassa seemed genuinely curios.  
  
[I'd probably have been able to get into the Guild on the basis of chaos control and power about three months after I got here, but there's a lot more about Candar that a mage needs to know that I still haven't even begun to learn. You know, history, politics, math. I've never been the acedemic type, anyway, not on Earth and certainly not here.[ Heh, not being a Guild mage had more than a few benefits. His current situation put him under Cerryl's authority and only his authority. At any time Ranma could give up his command of the Iron Guard and relenquish his rights as a citizen of Fairhaven. He didn't have to work for the guild like the others, who did what they were told or died by chaos flame.  
  
Lyassa had been in Spidlar and its surrounding cities off and on for the past four years, rarely returning to Fairhaven. Of course she'd heard of Ranma, the young man who came from another world. She'd heard the stories straight from Cerryl about what that world had been like. Ranma handled being in a virtually uncivilized land of primitives much better than most people would. Still, as unusual as he was, there should be no way that Ranma could gain his power that quickly. Three months. A student mage could expect to spend at least that much time on sewer duty learning to harness and control their power, but they'd already had a life permeated by chaos and their studies led them into their power. Ranma hadn't even had any chaos or order within him when he'd arrived, though Lyassa couldn't comprehend how anyone could survive without the chaos of life or the order that gave that chaos form.  
  
****  
  
The Iron Shark's boilers finally reached optimal pressure, the coal-fired steam engine shrieking in readiness. Dorrin released the pressure control valves and allowed the steam to begin the process that would drive the pistons connected to the prop. This was the first of the battle ships commissioned by the Council of Recluce. It was superior in every way to its two predecessors, the first a steam powered scow and the second his Black Hammer. With proper funding and no lack of materials, Dorrin had been able to spare no expense, and it showed. Larger, with a greater crew capacity, larger coal bins and more powerful and accurate weapons, the Iron Shark further secured Recluce's control of the surrounding oceans.  
  
****  
  
Author's Notes- I decided to jump a little into the future so as to skip a lot of explanations and useless settling in. Ranma's about 21 now and more mature than the last time we saw him after he first arrived in Candar. The next chapter will probably involve just the sea voyage to Hamor itself and very likely an encounted with Dorrin and his latest creation. C&C welcome at dark_phoneix@hotmail.com 


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